TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments 1. Summary and Conclusions...................................................................................................................................................................1 2. Background.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 3. Sample Minefields................................................................................................................................................................................. 10 Erbil Governorate Shirawash...................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Sardekan Hill................................................................................................................................................................................ 14 Azadi Minefield............................................................................................................................................................................16 Derband Minefields...................................................................................................................................................................17 Konyarasukosa Minefield ..................................................................................................................................................... 18 Sheikh Mawlan/Kandinowberger Minefield...............................................................................................................19 Sirmin-Sirmin Minefield.........................................................................................................................................................20 Kandibokidera Minefield.......................................................................................................................................................22 Sulemaniyah Governate Malooma Minefield...................................................................................................................................................................23 Pirdi Kashan Minefield............................................................................................................................................................25 Wuliawa Minefield ....................................................................................................................................................................25 Chapazra Minefield................................................................................................................................................................... 27 Pirdi Kon Minefield....................................................................................................................................................................28 Gapilon Minefield.......................................................................................................................................................................29 Dohuk Governorate Zakho-Sahela Minefield..........................................................................................................................................................29 4. Iraq's Mine Distribution and Mapping Strategies.................................................................................................................32 5. Sources of Land Mines.........................................................................................................................................................................37 6. The Threat to Non-Combatants: Vulnerable Occupations and Case Histories ...................................................................................................................................... 39 7. Medical Aspects.......................................................................................................................................................................................44 8. Control, Eradication, Marking and Awareness Initiatives............................................................................................................................................................. 50 9. Legal Principles...................................................................................................................................................................................... 53 10. Recommendations ..............................................................................................................................................................................62 MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS MAPS 1. Iraqi Kurdistan, showing survey route..........................................................................................................................................11 2. Sardekan Hill Minefield, sketch map............................................................................................................................................ 15 3. Kandibokidera Minefield, sketch map ........................................................................................................................................24 4. Pirdi Kashan Minefield, sketch map .............................................................................................................................................26 5. Map of Sites of Mine Injuries in Sulemaniya............................................................................................................................49 ILLUSTRATIONS Valmara 69, field sketch.......................................................................................................................................................................... 21 Sample Section, Zakho-Sahela Minefield...................................................................................................................................... 30 Copyright 8 October 1992 by Human Rights Watch. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hidden Death: Land Mines and Civilian Casualties in Iraqi Kurdistan/Middle East Watch October 1992 ISBN 1-56432-067-7 1. Human rights--Iraq--Kurdistan. 2. Mines, Military (International Law) 3. Persian Gulf War, 1991--Iraq--Kurdistan--Casualties (Statistics, etc.) 4. Kurds--Civil rights--Iraq. I. Middle East Watch (Organization) JC599.I6552K874 1992 323.4'9'095667--dc20 92-19398 CIP Human Rights Watch/Middle East (formerly Middle East Watch) Human Rights Watch/Middle East is a nongovernmental organization established in 1989 to monitor and promote the observance of internationally recognized human rights in the Middle East and North Africa. Andrew Whitley is the director; Eric Goldstein is the research director; Aziz Abu Hamad and Virginia N. Sherry are associate directors; Suzanne Howard is the associate. Gary Sick is the chair of the advisory committee and Lisa Anderson and Bruce Rabb are vice chairs. HIDDEN DEATH Land Mines and Civilian Casualties In Iraqi Kurdistan October 1992 Middle East Watch A Division of Human Rights Watch ". we have always had our dream, freedom, self-determination, a voice in our future -- this is the Kurdish dream. We have come so close but so many things conspire against us, and now these mines, this blight in our fields - they will surely kill our dream, even if we are successful in all our other efforts." Hussain Arif Kurdish Author Suleimaniya September 1991 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report was written by Rae McGrath, a consultant to Middle East Watch and director of the Mines Advisory Group, based on an extensive field mission conducted in Iraqi Kurdistan. He was assisted throughout the field research phase by Saywan who acted as interpreter, guide, advisor and satellite position finder. Thanks are also due to Saywan's family for their friendship and hospitality and, especially, to Salem for his cheerful assistance with transportation. The author wishes to thank the many other people and organizations in Kurdistan and elsewhere who assisted at various stages in the preparation of this report. The report was edited by Aryeh Neier, executive director of Human Rights Watch and Jemera Rone, counsel to Human Rights Watch, who wrote the background and legal sections. 1. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS The Iraqi army sowed millions of land mines in northern Iraqi (Iraqi Kurdistan) that were unrecorded and unmarked. These mines do not self-destruct. Because the Iraqis failed to clear them after the end of the Iranian war in 1988 (or, as to mines on the Turkish and Syrian borders in Dohuk governorate, after the 1991 Gulf War), we find that the Iraqi land mine practice in northern Iraq was indiscriminate as a matter of customary international law. These unmarked, unrecorded, nondegradable and unremoved land mines are an ongoing threat to the lives, limbs and well-being of the Iraqi Kurdish population in northern Iraq. Records from the Sulemaniyah City Hospital alone indicate that from March to September 1991 some 1,652 cases of land mine injuries were treated, including 397 involving surgical or traumatic amputation. In a survey of June 1992, Handicap International tabulated 658 cases of persons handicapped because of land mines in the governorate of Sulemaniyah alone; casualties in the other two governorates of Iraqi Kurdistan,